1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication records management device used in communication terminal devices such as facsimile machines or in a client-server system comprised of a plurality of data processing devices (clients), a mail server, a facsimile server and other machines connected via LANs (Local Area Networks).
2. Description of the Related Art
As communications and computer technology have developed, various forms of communication networks have been proposed. For example, a communication network which integrates a client-server system connecting a plurality of clients and a server to a LAN with PSTN (Public Subscriber Telephone Network) and/or ISDN (Integrated Service Digital Network) and transmits information is known. In such a client-server system, data processing devices like personal computers (PCs) may be used as the clients and a facsimile server device may be used as the server in order to perform facsimile communication from the data processing device (client) via the facsimile server device.
In this client-server system, facsimile data is generated at each of the data processing devices, and sent to the facsimile server device. The facsimile server device transmits the facsimile data to a remote facsimile device or a remote facsimile server device via PSTN or ISDN networks based on instructions from the data processing device. The facsimile server device also notifies the data processing devices when it receives facsimile data from remote facsimile and facsimile server devices.
Since facsimile data is comprised of image data that may include both text and pictures, the quantity of data that must be stored can become very large. Thus a memory device with large storage capacity may be required. For this reason, facsimile server devices are provided with high-capacity storage devices like hard disk drives.
The facsimile server device generates communication activity records about facsimile data transmission and reception including information such as the sender and recipient of an out-bound transmission and date/time of transmission, and the recipient and sender of an in-bound transmission and date/time of reception. These records are then stored in a storage device such as a hard disk drive. Facsimile communication data is thus managed by generating and storing these communication activity records.
Although the communication activity records in a conventional facsimile server device record facsimile communication activity (including sender, recipient, and time and date information), there is no way to verify whether or not the facsimile data is actually received by the recipient facsimile server device. Still further, it is impossible for the recipient facsimile server to confirm whether or not the designated recipient facsimile (user) has received the facsimile data.
In one known electronic mail communication system, when a document sent to a specified communication terminal device is opened at the communication terminal device of the specified recipient, receipt confirmation is automatically sent back to the communication terminal device of the sender. Yet in this case, when a large number of documents are transmitted to the same communication terminal device, receipt confirmation cannot be specified for each individual document. Although transmission reports and reception reports can be displayed at the communication terminal device in the electronic mail communication system, receipt confirmation is not directly attached to each data transmission, and therefore it is difficult and troublesome to confirm whether or not a particular transmitted document has been really received by the recipient.
When a communication terminal device receives an electronic mail, it sends back a confirmation signal and records a fact of data reception and a fact of confirmation sending in its memory, but recordation of data reception and that of confirmation sending are not related to each other in the memory. Therefore, it is difficult to know if the confirmation has been really sent to the sender in response to particular data received.
As understood from the above, a document reception confirmation means is not provided in a conventional system. Thus, the document reception status of each individual transmission cannot be determined when facsimile data and/or electronic mail documents are sent to or received from a remote communication terminal device.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a communication records management device capable of determining the document delivery status for each transmitted document when documents are sent to or received from remote communication terminal devices.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communication records management device comprising a storage means for storing transmission records of the transmitted document and reception records generated by receiving reception confirmation of the transmitted document from a recipient; a data processing means for generating communication activity records which match the confirmation reception records with the document transmission records; and a display means for displaying the communication activity records. The reception status (receipt confirmation) for the transmitted document can be determined by referencing the communication activity records created in the communication records management device.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, a communication records management device comprises a storage means for storing a reception record of a received document and a transmission record generated when reception confirmation for the received document is transmitted; a data processing means for generating communication activity records which match the reception confirmation transmission records with the document reception records; and a display means for displaying the communication activity records. The transmission status of receipt confirmation for the received document can be determined by referencing the communication activity records created in the communication records management device.